Epic TV, a service fully funded by Finnish telecommunications and ICT service company Elisa, is launching a pan-European OTT platform for adventure sports.

Epic TV will be available on iPads, on Android devices and on PCs driven by the Tvinci OTT platform, and on Samsung smart TVs for which Accedo has provided the tools.

“We are focused on providing new experiences and delivering TV services for the future where people watch content that is specific to their interests, and on whatever device they want,” said Panu Lehti, Head of EpicTV and VP, business development at Elisa.

“We are delighted to work with Tvinci and Accedo on this project. Within a very demanding time frame, they knew how to enable us to meet consumer demand and understood the complexity we faced in packaging content for different devices, protecting it with DRM e.g Microsoft Playready and effectively charging for it. The platform we have deployed meets our requirements, and more.”

EpicTV will serve a potential audience of tens of millions adventure sports fans in 15 countries, and will feature a Facebook-based freemium model and other viewer engagement methods. It offers a vast library of skiing, snowboarding, surfing climbing, mountain biking and base jumping video content.

“This deployment with Elisa serves to prove that operators are now realizing the power of OTT and that they must think clearly and strategically about who they are delivering to and how these people are consuming content,” said Ofer Shayo, CEO, Tvinci.

“Working with Elisa’s EpicTV team is a real pleasure, as the two teams inspire each other with new ideas. The result of this effort is that EpicTV subscribers will enjoy a highly targeted and personalized cross-device experience on EpicTV from day one. We are very excited by this deployment with our partner Accedo for Elisa and look forward to seeing how it meets the needs of adventure sports enthusiasts across Europe.”

“Regional and global content offerings can be cost-efficiently realized with OTT solutions,” said Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo. “Elisa has shown unprecedented innovation and strategic thinking with an attractive targeted content offering via OTT. Together with Tvinci, we’re excited to bring this service to the market in a very short time frame.”

EpicTV is a VOD service for premium, feature-length adventure films. For €6.90 per month, subscribers in 15 European countries get unlimited access to films on skiing, snowboarding, surfing, climbing, mountain biking, BASE jumping and more. Subscribers can access EpicTV from PCs, connected TVs, tablets and smart phones.